Jazz Pianist Gene Harris Dead At 66

Fiery jazz pianist Gene Harris, prolific Blue Note and Concord Jazz recording artist who defined gospel- and blues-influenced directions in jazz for over thirty years, died on Sunday (1/16) after collapsing from a seizure at his home in Boise, Idaho. Ill with diabetes and kidney problems, the pianist had been waiting for a kidney transplant since last summer.

Born in Benton, Michigan on Sept. 1, 1933, Harris was influenced by the gospel music he heard in church. He taught himself to play boogie-woogie piano, inspired by recordings of Kansas City pianist Pete Johnson, Chicago pianist Albert Ammons and other records in his parents' collection. Later, he gravitated toward the harmonic complexities of jazz.

After a stint in the Army in the early fifties, he formed a quartet known as the Four Sounds, then dropped the tenor saxophonist to form the Three Sounds in 1956. Together with bassist Andy Simpkins and drummer Bill Dowdy, the group fused Harris' testifying blues sound with superlative trio communication and dynamic control, exemplified by the group's way of accenting together and pulling out all the stops before returning to the composition's theme.

Like saxophonist Cannonball Adderly and cornetist Nat Adderly (who died on Jan. 2) , the Three Sounds brought the concept of "soul-jazz" to popular acclaim, recording over 20 albums for Blue Note from 1958-68.

"The Three Sounds were typecast initially as something in the Ahmad Jamal/Ramsey Lewis sweepstakes," said producer Michael Cuscuna, who is preparing the Three Sounds "Live at the Lighthouse" and "Live at the 'It Club,' Vol. 2" for reissue on Blue Note.

"But as Gene Harris proved, he had a considerable amount of versatility and very much his own voice. He was superb at funk and the '50s trio style, but he was also successful with modern jazz compositions. And when he broke out of the trio, he was an excellent composer and arranger.''

In 1977, Harris settled in Boise with his wife, playing locally but retiring from the national scene. In the early '80s, bassist Ray Brown encouraged Harris to get on the road again. Harris joined the leading bassist's trio on four Concord Jazz albums, then put together his own new trios and quartets, which, at various times, included guitarists Ron Eschete and Frank Potenza, bassist Luther Hughes and drummer Paul Humphrey.

Recordings with these later groups were Harris' legacy on Concord Jazz, where he recorded some 17 albums as a leader. The block chords and rippling blues triplets that powered Harris' immediately recognizable sound tended to overshadow his contributions in other areas: his use of space, a respectful sense of pacing and a creative knack for arrangements of compositions such as "Black Orchid" and "On Green Dolphin Street." His album "Gene Harris All-Star Big Band Tribute to Count Basie" was nominated for a Grammy in 1989. Last fall's "Alley Cats" was his most recent Concord Jazz album.

In November, Harris had to cancel solo performances at New York's Lincoln Center because of kidney problems. Gigs which he hoped to play in 2000 included March dates at the Founder Hall Jazz Club in Costa Mesa, CA and May dates at the Pabst Theater in Milwaukee, WI. The Boise State University Gene Harris Jazz Festival, scheduled for April 6 through 8, will still take place, probably as a series of tribute concerts, according to the Idaho Statesman.

Mosaic Records, the reissue label, is considering a retrospective of the first stage of the Three Sounds on Blue Note. Cuscuna, who co-founded Mosaic, said that the group left behind a large volume of unreleased material.